Billy Bragg Live in Dublin
I don’t want this place to become just a collection of YouTube clips, but I’ve not got much time right now and wanted to say a little bit about the gig last night… this is better than nothing I guess. We went to see Billy Bragg at Vicar Street and, as ever, he raised the roof. A thousand people singing There is Power in a Union is a wonderful thing to hear. I ended up describing him to someone today as “like an English Christy Moore”. I hope Billy would take that as the powerful compliment I mean it as (even if, strictly speaking, Bragg has his roots in punk while Moore is a folkie).
Anyways, the gig was great. The pissed bloke, not far from where myself and Citizen S were sitting, who insisted on trying to shout over the top of Billy’s between-song-monologues got beyond a joke at one point and I came close to tracking him down and offering to pay him to leave. Not that I had the money, not that he’d have left, and not that he’d have stopped shouting, but maybe — just maybe — when he awoke hungover the next day he might recall my offer and be shamed into resolving to shut the fuck up next time!
But yeah, Billy was a star. Like he always is. And support was provided by US singer-songwriter, Otis Gibbs, who was worth the ticket price alone (not that I judge an artist’s worth by how much you’d pay to see him, but you know what I’m saying).
Like any great artist who has been around a while, Billy didn’t play half the stuff I’d have liked him to play. But, then, he could have played for another couple of hours and still not played half the stuff I wanted to hear. Which is OK. When what you do get is so wonderful, it’s only an arsehole who complains. Also, as is often the case with me, my favourite album by a singer is one that other fans don’t rave about so much. So I suspect even if he had played for another couple of hours, we still wouldn’t have heard much from William Bloke.
He was as strident, as righteous and as inspiring as ever. Although having said that, the lovely Citizen S did point out afterwards that, having grown up in a communist regime, it’s a little strange for her to hear songs that idealise and romanticise unions and workers and socialism to quite that extent.
Don’t get me wrong, she enjoyed the gig and sees the worth in the songs and ideas but I guess those words are bound to have a different resonance for her. That’s one of the (many) things I like about Citizen S… I get to see the world from a different perspective when we’re together. A good thing. We’re neither of us big fans of capitalism, though. So not too different a perspective!
Hopefully next time we go see Billy play he’ll dust off a couple of tracks from William Bloke. Maybe The Space Race Is Over and From Red to Blue? Just thought I’d put that idea out there in case he googles himself one day and reads this page…
But yeah, one song he did play last night (how could he not?) was Waiting For The Great Leap Forwards. And, as the song says… if you’ve got a website, I want to be on it…
I saw Billy Bragg at The Flying Picket in Liverpool back in about 1996. I think I was the equivalent of the pissed bloke. Billy was talking about the need to vote New Labour. To bring change. “Bollocks” shouted I, which earned some unfavourable glances from my fellow gig-goers. I enjoyed the music, but left the gig depressed that one of my teenage heroes should have been giving such an insipid and reformist message.
I’d like to say I’ve moderated with age, but I haven’t really. Small comfort to feel vindicated. Great gig though.
December 6th, 2008 | 1:31pm
by pmm
To be honest, PMM, he’s still preaching a very moderate message in some respects. In fact, he seemed to be still endorsing support for Labour because they are the only alternative to the tories (in the UK) and the Irish Labour party as an alternative to the two centre-right parties here.
It’s like when he asks the question (in From Red to Blue): “Should I vote red for my class or green for our children?” Seems he’s settled on red, but without fully understanding the words to his own song… the transformation of Labour, “from red to blue” is now complete.
I’d rather eat my own flesh than vote tory, but to suggest there’s any real difference between them and Labour now is just wrong. Britain needs another option (and it ain’t the fricking LibDems).
I can recall watching a TV panel show (possibly Question Time) back when the rush to war with Iraq had begun but the war hadn’t quite. Tony Benn — a great man — spent the whole evening talking about “New Labour” and “the REAL Labour Party” as though they were different things. Even back then the transformation was complete. Ironically, Benn was being a classic conservative (small ‘c’) by insisting that “Real Labour” is defined by some golden age in the past.
It isn’t. It’s defined by the people who set and implement the policies, by the decisions it makes while in power, by the willingness to act as an attack-dog for the most right-wing US administration in history.
Which is not to say that it couldn’t change again. But I’d rather forge something new than try to recreate a socialist vision that’s now decades old… discredited by those who wore the clothes and then ditched them as soon as they gained power.
The seeds of what’s truly needed can be found in the green anarchist movement, the anti-capitalist direct action groups, the Climate Camp, the permaculturists and all those others who have seen through the lies of mainstream politics and realise that the doors to that arena are now barred to anyone who hasn’t signed a Willingness to be Deeply Compromised declaration prior to entry.
It gives me a little heart that I’m not the only one who realises we are facing a very serious crisis. But I simply do not believe that, given the urgency with which action needs to be taken, we can wait for the ballot box to take it. Direct action may well be the only way.
But for all that, Bragg’s songs and vision can still provide a great inspiration. His monologue about the need to stand up against the casual racism, sexism and homophobia that we all encounter in our daily life was quite wonderful. And songs like “There is Power in a Union” can apply not just to classic socialism but also to the direct action I’m talking about.
No, he’s not perfect but let’s face it, who the hell is?
December 6th, 2008 | 2:11pm
by Jim Bliss